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Other CAD Tools >> Entry Tools >> SKILL/C interface
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Message started by Haydar on Feb 25^th, 2009, 10:47pm

Title: SKILL/C interface
Post by Haydar on Feb 25^th, 2009, 10:47pm

Hi,
I was told that I can write C code and call SKILL functions from within my C code. That means that there must be a C library of the SKILL functions that I can link in.

Does anybody know where I can find the C library for the SKILL functions? Also what is the coverage, do all SKILL functions exist in this library? I would assume that the equivalent C functions have the same name and arguments as in regular SKILL functions. A code written this way would be much faster than regular SKILL code.

Thanks for any info on this topic.

-Haydar

Title: Re: SKILL/C interface
Post by Andrew Beckett on Feb 26^th, 2009, 10:10am

That's not quite the case. Cadence provides "ITK DB" (Integrator's ToolKit) which is a C-level API to access the database. Within such code, there is a some _limited_ support for calling SKILL (this is to allow pcell code to be evaluated, for example), but it's constrained to "pcell-safe" SKILL functions (i.e. the SKILL functions that are legal within pcells - those which are core SKILL, db, dd, tech, cdf and rod functions).

Such ITK applications are standalone applications - they're primarily intended as a means of writing interfaces to the database (which also be done with OpenAccess in OA-enabled versions). They are not linked in with the main Virtuoso executables.

Regards,

Andrew.

Title: Re: SKILL/C interface
Post by haikom on Apr 3^rd, 2009, 7:27am

Hi,

but maybe the IPC-Interface may help you. There you can pass data or parameter between your C-application and a SKILL-application. Search for IPC inside the DFII installation tree.
But in my opinion, only applications which needs a lot computing power (signal processing, simulation algorithms) should be implemented in e.g. C. But schematic or layout manipulation for applications with simple GUIs and some data processing should be implemented in SKILL.
What do you think about this, Andrew?

Kind regards
haikom

Title: Re: SKILL/C interface
Post by Andrew Beckett on Apr 4^th, 2009, 2:40pm

Haikom,

I agree entirely.

Andrew.